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From:	ric (96.230.60.253)
Subject:	wolfe
Date:	July 1, 2008 at 2:40 am PST

In Reply to: Re: dr. d, 2-3 weeks 811 with a few questions for you posted by Dr. Doug Graham on July 1, 2008 at 1:02 am:

One must question the discernment of the person who promoted Mr. Wolfe as an expert...especially in raw food nutrition.

The below post was put together a while back:

I have one of Wolfe's books (Sunfood Diet Success System). I read much of it and had attempted to follow its teachings.

I have attended one of Wolfe's lectures.

The point is that he lures health seekers to living food lectures that quickly turn into infomercials for very dead, toxic, pharmaceutical grade supplements. This is bait and switch, and those who do this scam are charlatans.

I recall he spoke of his back problem which would not heal - "even with raw" - until he started ingesting a white powdered supplement, (which he was conveniently selling at the table in the back as you exited the lecture hall). His lecture could have been titled "The Nutritional Insufficiency of the Raw Vegan Diet."

Another point is that he promotes a health destroying high fat raw diet. He spoke of once ingesting so much fat, that it was oozing out of his pores.

If you want the best raw food advice (in my opinion) keep reading Dr. Graham. If you want to be sold a bill of goods, go with Wolfe.

Dr. Graham taught many of the luminaries in the raw food world. He is disappointed that folks he has taught are using the banner of raw foods, to lead health seekers down supplement alley, in order to cash in on them. He is disappointed that they continue publishing books, long after they have left the path taught in those books, leaving folks trying to follow what the authors realized is a failing path. He is disappointed that they promote high fat diets which health organizations have repeatedly proven counter-productive to health and well being.

In my opinion, you're doing yourself a good turn if you leave Wolfe's high fat diet and his toxic supplements alone.

ric

PS Could it be Mr. Wolfe is a plagiarist? Was he selling another man's words as his own for a profit?

The book "Nature's First Law" by David Wolfe (and two co-writers) seems to have been plagiarized from "Raw Food Eating"
by Arshavir Ter Hovannessian...originally NFL was not attributed to Hovannessian.

George Malkmus of Hallelujah Acres said in lecture that they made great effort to contact Arshavir Ter Hovannessian (Aterhov) before they republished his book "Raw Eating". (Aterhov was fully acknowledged as the author of the book in that publishing.) My impression from his words is that Malkmus knew nothing of the below biographical information, surmising that Aterhov may have died by then, (of old age).

It seems Hovannessian suffered the loss of fortune, freedom, and possibly even his life, in the cause of promoting healthful living in Iran...which adds to the sadness of the actions of David Wolfe in his plagiarism, (see below).

The next paragraph is from wiki:

"Aterhov had two of his children die of chronic diseases, and set about to investigate alternative health. His research and thought led him to the raw vegan diet. He raised his third child on a 100% raw vegan diet, and also managed to tremendously improve his own health along the way. Aterhov worked tirelessly to promote the raw food diet, and refused to accept money for his efforts. He spent a tremendous amount of his own money to publish his books and distributed them worldwide, mostly to research institutions. Aterhov was imprisoned for criticizing the quality of the Tehran water supply, and it is widely believed that he was killed shortly after the Iranian revolution."

I found the below post (which is reproduced in its entirety) on the archive of this board.

ric

From: Louis (tnt01-ppp-113.idcomm.com)
Subject: Hovanessian speaks out against Raw Eating plagiarism
Date: May 15, 2003 at 12:02 pm PST

Someone posted this on another board and I felt that it was worth passing on here. Hope that's okay.

"And since you asked "What is the REASON" behind the criticism of "Nature's First Law, The Raw Food Diet" I'll point out a few things which actually really disturb me a lot, and then I'll never mention this again on this board.

The book was blatantly plagiarized (we're talking mostly word for word) from the writings of an Armenian man living in Iran, Arshavir Ter Hovannessian, two of whose children had died from tragic illness. He sought out the cause of true health and raised his third child totally raw vegan and cured himself of many ailments. He lived a very simple life and devoted all of his time to spreading the message of raw foods. He gave away his books for free, and refused to accept money for them. Living in Iran, which was not exactly the land of opportunity at that time, he did not have the means and possibilities that exist in America. David Wolfe, Stephen Arlin, and R.C. Dini chose to completely plagiarize his masterpiece without giving a shred of acknowledgement. They could have reprinted his book, giving full credit, they could have concerned themselves with the idea that perhaps the man had family or friends, or children, in Iran who could have benefited from the proceeds of the book, they could have at least acknowledged their source. Instead, they passed off as their own creativity and thought some of the most compelling, forceful words ever written on the subject of raw veganism. When confronted with the fact that it was known that they did this, they at first fiercely denied it, then invented stories about the man being a relative of theirs, then finally realizing that they had better include an acknowlegement of thanks to Hovanessian, which was not included in the first few editions of their book. They still continue to give themselves authorship on the cover of the book, with no credit given to Hovanessian, when in fact the huge bulk of the book is due to his time, his effort, and his creativity.

As I said, Hovanessian was greatly disturbed when another man passed his work off as his own and SOLD IT FOR MONEY. Here are some quotes from that exchange, included in Hovanessians book "Raw Eating".

"That unscrupulous gentleman....copies word for word every one of the six maxims given on the cover of my book and, together with my principal findings, inserts the article in the February and April, 1965, issues of the "Let's Live" Magazine as part of an article entitled "Adventures In Raw Foods."

Mr Reinecke oversteps the bounds of decency to such an extent that he reserves for himself the copyrights of the thoughts and expressions that belong to me, and offers to sell additional information at the price of 5$ apiece....This act is a glaring offence against international copyright laws and should be condemned unreservedly. People should not read such a publication as the "Lets Live" Magazine, which thrives on the advertisements of artificial vitamins and "dietetic" preparations.

Now, for over a decade, I have forsaken social life and have deprived myself of every pleasure. I have been extremely frugal in regard to the needs of my family and myself, but have not hesitated for a moment to spend all my savings in carrying out studies and publishing books, 10,000 copies of which I have already distributed free to scientific organizations and individuals in all the corners of the earth. I have made these sacrifices in order to show the whole world the way to a happy and natural life, and all along I have protested with my heart and soul against selling such advice for money.

But today, Mr.J.M.Reinecke, making a lucrative use of my ideas and my maxims, demands a fee of $5 to show people how to eat natural foodstuffs! This is, indeed, the most disturbing aspect of the question."

Now that just makes me so mad. That is the absolutely worst choice of a person to plagiarize and profit from. He was so strong about not selling his work for money, and then someone steals it without giving credit, putting their own names on it, and selling it, selling it, selling it. They sure seemed to love his book, but I guess not the part about "I have protested with my heart and soul against selling such advice for money" and the part about plagiarism "overstepping the bounds of decency" and "this glaring offence....being condemned unreservedly".

Nature's First Law should either withdraw the book and begin selling Hovanessian's (of course "the worlds greatest source" of raw food books and products declines to stock this book), or they should immediately withdraw their names from the cover and give the credit that this man deserves for the words that have inspired so many people on the raw food path. The poor guy tried his absolute best to get the message out from IRAN. I can't even imagine the troubles he had. I believe that he was arrested and jailed for speaking out against the poor water quality in Tehran.

The fact that David Wolfe, Stephen Arlin, et al, lied and deceived when they were confronted with the idea that Hovanessian should recieve the credit for this book speaks volumes to me. It's just unbelievable and sad.

And people wonder why they inflate their prices? Give me a break.

NFL found it appropriate to reproduce Hovanessians work as their own. Those constantly "condemning" this act are also choosing to follow Hovanessians admonition. I don't believe that NFL should ever be allowed to forget this and have it "just go away" until they acknowledge fully and publicly that this beautiful man is the reason for so much of their success and the success of others. And I mean more than some lame acknowledgement saying that many of his ideas are reflected in the front of their book that they didn't even feel like putting there until pushed by others to do so in much later editions.

David and Nature's First Law have helped thousands? That's great and they deserve credit for the good they've done. But that doesn't give them a free pass to say that they are responsible for someone elses creative thought, someone whose children and family live in a place where free creative thought comes at a high price, someone who did not believe in selling that creative thought for any price, someone who devoted their life to giving that information to others on the back of his own sacrifices, without profiting in the slightest.

The raw food diet is about truth, discovering the truth in the world and exposing the lies we all grew up with. We need representatives who are truthful, who don't disregard the wishes of those they profit from, and who can be believed.

Until this happens, I personally have made the decision to boycott NFL because I don't feel they can be trusted to accurately and truthfully represent the products and works that they sell."

ric - The below comparison quotes have been gathered from the net...I do not own the Nature's First Law book, as prefer not to purchase a copy of it.

"Raw Eating", chapter one, page 7, first paragraph:

"Raw vegetable food should be the only nourishment taken by man. The habit
of eating cooked food should be abandoned in this world once and for all.
This is the unerring demand of nature. The consumption of cooked food is
the most terrible barbarism in the history of mankind, a barbarism that no
one seems to be aware of and to which everybody falls an unconscious
victim. No matter how strange the idea may seem to some, it is the
absolute truth with which we cannot but acquiesce."

"Nature's First Law", chapter one, page 1, first paragraph:

"Raw plant food should be the only food eaten by human beings. Humanity's
habit of eating cooked food must be abandoned in this world once and for
all. This is the absolute command of Nature. The consumption of cooked
food is the most unnatural savagery in the history of humankind. It is an
atrocity that no one seems to be aware of and to which everybody falls an
unconscious victim. What people eat deeply and radically affects the way
they think, feel, and behave. It drastically affects the entire life
process of planet Earth. No matter how strange the idea may seem to some,
it is the absolute truth that humanity must accept. To most, the truth is
stranger than fiction."

"Raw Eating", chapter one, page 7, second paragraph:

"This truth became evident to me when, after eighteen years of careful
study and investigation, I became convinced that the deaths of my ten-year
old son and fourteen-year old daughter were caused by unnatural nutrition.
The great number of medical examinations carried out in Iran, France, and
Germany and Switzerland in various attempts made to discover some specific
disease in their organisms and the subsequent administration of numerous
remedies had a considerable share, too, in bringing the tragedy to a head.
My children died by the gradual emaciation and wasting away of all their
organs caused by unnatural feeding and poisonous medicines."

"Nature's First Law", chapter one, page 1, second paragraph:

"This truth became evident to these three authors when, after years of
careful study and investigations, we became convinced that the deaths of
our family members, friends, and pets were caused by unnatural nutrition.
In turn, improper nourishment caused the premature degeneration of their
cellular structures. All the medical examinations carried out to diagnose
their specific diseases and all the drugs and medicines they were coerced
to ingest also had a considerable share in bringing the tragedy to a head.
Our family members, friends, and pets died of the gradual emaciation and
wasting away of their internal organs caused by unnatural feeding and
poisonous medicines."

"Raw Eating", chapter one, page 7, third paragraph:

"I have been able to penetrate into the secrets of medical science and to
observe its good and bad aspects all the more clearly, because I have not
been inspired by the prospects of becoming a doctor or of making any
financial gains. My incentive has been in the first place to wish to do my
best for the recovery of the health of my beloved children, and later the
ardent desire to perpetuate their memory by being useful to humanity."

"Nature's First Law", chapter one, page 1, third paragraph:

We have been able to penetrate into the secrets of medical science and to
observe its good and bad aspects. We have not been driven by the prospect
of becoming doctors or by making any financial gains by lying. First, our
incentive has been to do our best to help our families and friends achieve
greater levels of health. And later, it has been the ardent desire to
perpetuate the memory of those family members and friends who have passed
away by being useful to humanity.

"Raw Eating", chapter one, page 8, last paragraph:

"The results of eighteen years of painstaking study and labour have been
embodied in a work of two large volumes the first of which, a book of 568
pages, was published in Armenian in 1960."

"Nature's First Law", chapter one, page 3, last paragraph:

"The results of years of painstaking study and labor have been embodied in
this work. As far as possible, we have devoted our time to the study of a
great many branches of science and to the sources of these multifarious
categories of knowledge."

"Raw Eating", last chapter, page 117, 4th paragraph from the end:

"The man of today is very proud of his civilization, but he is far from
being really civilized. Real civilization should be measured not by mere
technical progress, but by the ennoblement of the mind and soul of the individual, the conquest of vices and addictions, and the emancipations of the human intellect from superstitions."

"Nature's First Law", last chapter, page 189, 4th paragraph from the end:

"People of today are proud of their civilization, but they are far from
being really civilized. Real civilization should be measured not by mere
technological progress, but by the ennoblement of the individual, the
conquest of vices and addictions, the emancipation of the human intellect
from superstitions, and the forwarding of a genetically pure population."

"Raw Eating", paragraph one, page 13: Addiction to Cooked Food is the
Most Dangerous of All Vices

The reader may naturally wonder why
none of the numerous scientists and professors sees these simply truths
and why nobody tells us that eating cooked foods is unnatural and
dangerous. The reason is that the whole of mankind are food addicts and
food-addiction has blinded everybody. Nobody realizes that
cooked-eating is a vice and that it is indeed the most terrible of all
vices.

"Nature's First Law" page 15, Chapter 5: Cooked
Food: A Physio-Chemical Addiction

people naturally wonder why
none of the numerous "learned" scientists and philosophers understand
these simple Truths and why nobody has yet told humanity that eating
cooked food is unnatural and dangerous. The reason is that all of
humanity is addicted to cooked food and that addiction has blinded
everybody. Nobody realizes that cooked-food eating is a vice. It is, in
fact the most terrible vice of all..

"Raw Eating", page 13, still the first paragraph:

It is not a craving after only one
kind of substance but the sum total of one's voracious longings for
thousands of substances (and what "marvelous", "desirable" substances
at that!). Besides, short-sighted cooked-eaters see richness and
excellence in the multiplicity of the debasements to which foodstuffs
are subjected, whereas it is the very multiplicity of the debasements
that gives rise to the multiplicity of harms, the true reflection of
which can be seen in the large variety of illnesses which prevail in
the world today.

"Nature's First Law", page 15 Chapter 5, second paragraph of Chapter 5:

Cooked-food addiction encompasses
not just a craving for one type of substance, but hundreds, even
thousands, of substances. On top of this, short-sighted cooked-eaters
see richness and excellence in the multiplicity of debased foodstuffs.
It is this very multiplicity of debasements that gives rise to a
multiplicity of harms. A true reflection of this can be seen in the
large variety of illnesses that prevail in the world today--especially
in the "rich, developed" world.

"Raw Eating", page 13, second paragraph:

Man becomes addicted to these
substances that contain poisons such, as tea, coffee, tobacco, alcohol,
opium, cocaine, morphine, etc. The strong craving for these substances
is stimulated by corresponding poisons collected in the human organism.
Cooked foods produce a large variety of poisons which, in the course of
time, are stored in different parts of the organism, such as on the
walls of veins and capillaries, between the joints, in the center of
fat cells and elsewhere.

"Nature's First Law", page 15-16, 3rd and 4th paragraph of chapter 5:

Human beings become addicted to
substances that contain poisons, such as tea, coffee, cooked marijuana,
cooked tobacco, alcohol, cocaine, heroin, etc. Addictions promote and
defend themselves.

The strong craving for these
substances is stimulated by corresponding poisons collected in the
human organism. Cooked foods contain a large variety of poisons which,
in the course of time, are stored in different parts of the body. They
are deposited on the walls of veins and capillaries, between the
joints, in the center of fat cells, and elsewhere.

"Raw Eating", page 13, still the second paragraph:

Just as the craving of a drug
addict for heroin does not arise from the normal physiological needs of
his body, so the desire of a cooked-food eater for cooked food, his
feeling of hunger, is not the normal demand of his organism; rather it
is the demand of his addiction. It is the expression of impulses that
are stimulated by the poisons collected in the human organism; it is the
demand of the diseases nestled in the body, the call of man's worst
enemy.

"Nature's First Law", page 16, paragraph 5 of chapter 15:

The crack addict's craving for rock
cocaine does not arise from the normal physiological needs of the
organism; it is created by a physio-chemical addiction. Similarly, the
desire for cooked food, is not a physiological need, but a
physio-chemical addiction. It is the expression of impulses that are
stimulated by the poisons and malformed cells thriving in the organism.
It is the demand of the diseases nestled in the body, the call of
humanity's worst enemy.

"Raw Eating", page 13, third and final paragraph:

That terrible vice is introduced
into the body of every human being by his own parents right from the
cradle. That is why the moment the baby begins to take notice and start
talking, food-addiction has already secured a firm hold on him and from
that moment to the very end of his life he regards cooked food as his
normal diet and his strong craving for it as his physiological demand;
it is this that he mistakes for real hunger.

"Nature's First Law", 16, sixth and final paragraph

That terrible vice is introduced
into the body of every human being by his or her own mother when still
an embryo via the umbilical cord and placenta. Once the child is born
the parents unwittingly continue this insane process. Even before the
child has learned to talk, cooked-food addiction has already secured a
physio-chemical hold on the organism. From that moment to the end of
s/he regards cooked food as normal and natural and the craving for it
s/he mistakes for hunger.

"Raw Eating", page 108, third full paragraph:

Perhaps some of my readers may not
like my tone of writing. In their opinion my expressions should
preferably be more scientific (adorned with a Latin terminology
unintelligible to most people), more conciliatory (complaisant), more
serious (hypocritical), more compromising (unscrupulous), more
courteous (lying), and more tactful (cowardly). But I prefer to be
decisive, sincere and bold. And that is how I shall be, even if I find
the whole world against me. I am confident that I shall be supported by
all sensible people and vindicated by future generations.

"Nature's First Law", page 178-9

Perhaps some people do not like our
tone of writing. In their opinion our expressions should preferably be
more scientific (adorned with Greek and Latin terminology
unintelligible to most people), more conciliatory (milquetoast), more
serious (hypocritical), more compromising (unscrupulous), more
courteous (filled with lies), and more tactful (cowardly). We are
driven by forces seeded in our blood. We are decisive and bold. We are
accurate and succinct. We hold nothing back and get right to the point.
That is how we shall be, even if we find the whole world against us. We
are confident that we shall be supported by all sensible people and
vindicated by future generations.

"Raw Eating", page 108, third full paragraph, third sentence:

But I prefer to be decisive,
sincere and bold.

"Nature's First Law", page 179, second full sentence:

We are decisive and bold.

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